Safiyyah came to him while he was in iʿtikāf to speak with him, for she was his wife, and there is nothing wrong with a man’s family speaking to him during iʿtikāf; such contact nurtures familiarity, affection, and love. When she rose to return home, the Prophet ﷺ—who was the best of people toward his own family, as he said, “The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best of you to my family”—stood and walked with her, escorting her to her house.

Just then, two men from the Anṣār passed by. Seeing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they felt embarrassed and hastened their steps. The Prophet ﷺ called out, “Slow down; there is no need to hurry. She is Safiyyah bint Ḥuyayy,” so that they would not imagine that a strange woman had come to the Prophet ﷺ at night, a time when people ordinarily remain indoors. The two men exclaimed, “Glory be to Allah!” astonished that the Messenger would feel the need to say this. He replied, “Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood: he reaches the heart and the veins; just as blood circulates throughout the body, so too Satan circulates within the son of Adam.” The term majrā here is a locative noun, meaning “the place where blood flows.” “I feared,” he said, “that he might cast some evil—or, he said, some thought—into your hearts.”

This ḥadīth points to several benefits:

1. The Prophet’s ﷺ excellent character in the way he treated his family.
2. The permissibility of a wife visiting her husband while he is in iʿtikāf, and that such a visit does not invalidate the iʿtikāf. Even if he happens to take pleasure in looking at her, that does no harm, for Allah only forbade sexual relations with women during iʿtikāf.